2022-02-02 Diversity Commission MinutesCITY OF EDMONDS
DIVERSITY COMMISSION
RETREAT '
February 2, 2022, 4-8pm
Meeting conducted via Zoom
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT
Dean Olson, Chair
Nikki Okimoto Glaros, Vice -Chair
Ardeth Weed
Alison Alfonzo Pence
Sekou Kone
Elaine Helm
Gracelynn Shibayama
Robert White
Councilmember Will Chen, ex officio
Caitlin Chung, Student Rep
COMMISSIONERS ABSENT
Alberto Orejel Malfavon - excused
GUESTS PRESENT
Michelle Johnson, facilitator
Jeff Taraday, City Attorney
STAFF PRESENT
Megan Luttrell, Program Coordinator
Economic Development & Community
Services
Molly Jay, Diversity Commission Coordinator
4:00 P.M. — Call to Order and Land Acknowledgement: "We acknowledge the original
inhabitants of this place, the Sdohobsh (Snohomish) people and their successors the
Tulalip Tribes, who since time immemorial have hunted, fished, gathered, and taken care
of these lands. We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and we
honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water." - City Council Land
Acknowledgment
1. Roll Call: Dean called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m. and called roll. Alison read the
land acknowledgement. Alberto was unable to attend and was excused.
2. Approval of Agenda: Ardeth moved to approve, Elaine seconded; the agenda was
approved by consensus.
3. Approval of January 5, 2022 Summary: Ardeth mentioned the time for the next meeting
should be updated to 4pm; Robert asked that we update the word "motivate" to "inform"
in his Commissioner Corner comment; Caitlin shared that her name was misspelled in the
Commissioner Corner section and needs to be updated; with those changes, the summary
was approved by consensus.
4. Public Comment: None this evening.
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Diversity Commission
February 3, 2022
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Diversity Commission Retreat
1. Team Building Icebreaker (40 minutes): Michelle Johnson, facilitator led the icebreaker
exercise. She asked that everyone grab a couple items that are important to you or that
explain a bit about you and share them with the group.
2. Mission Statement review (5 minutes): The Commission reviewed the mission statement,
specifically sharing it with the newest members of the Commission, no changes were
made.
3. Meeting protocol (10 minutes): Michelle Johnson, facilitator, covered meeting protocol.
4. Media Training (20 minutes): Kelsey Foster, PIO: ABSENT. We will ask her to come to a
future meeting.
5. Protocol for response to racial incidents (10 minutes):
Open questions: how do we better respond to the hate crime portal? Are we able to share
documents with one another one platform ie Sharepoint. Megan pointed out that in her
experience city employees have only had access to the Sharepoint platforms. She will
follow up with the City's IT department to see what options we have. Do we have
incidents reports and templates in place? Commission decided these incidents are
nuanced, one-off cases that templates cannot easily support. Robert mentioned a flow
chart of the response process would be useful; Elaine would like to see a document of
resources and a distribution list.
35 minute break
6. OPMA (15 minutes): Jeff Taraday, City Attorney, covered the Open Public Meeting Act
with the Commission. He emphasized that a quorum (five Commissioners or more)
requires an official notice be issued as that creates a meeting. He reminded the
Commission on importance of "do not reply all" in emails as this is also considered a
quorum.
7. Brainstorm Discussion for Subcommittee Workplans for 2022 (60 minutes):
Policy, Events and Partnership committees went to breakout rooms to brainstorm and
workshop ideas for 2022. The groups then came back together to discuss their plans and
ask for feedback. The lists will provide ongoing fodder for upcoming monthly
subcommittee meetings.
Events 2022 Brainstorm List:
a. World Cafe and/or Youth Cafe: Donnie and Dean priority. Each table has a 15-20
convo devoted to a topic; one leader per table. One theme for whole World Cafe. Held
in a big space. Very successful in the past. People stayed around after and chatted.
Good mix of demographics. Advertised in Beacon and My Edmonds News. Challenge:
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COVID. Perhaps could be outdoors during warm weather. Action item: talk in spring
subcommittee meeting about summer possibility.
b. Juneteenth: Action item: Nikki to connect with Donnie to see how we lend our
support. Voter registration presence (Nikki to take lead)
c. June Pride Month: Action item: Molly to reach out to Pride of Edmonds group. Can be
just recognition and support.
d. Storytelling Pop -Ups: Action item: Molly to follow up ... what is this, an extension of I
Am Edmonds? Dean to send email correspondence to Molly to add color and clarify.
e. Film Series: Continue to do it in person unless we choose otherwise due to COVID,
team chooses to remain in person
f. Holiday/Events Calendar, flap pole, social media, and website ideas: Asking city to
add more holidays to their web site. Nikki: we should rebrand I Am Edmonds Facebook
page as Diversity Commission Facebook page.
g. Outreach protocol for events: Flowcharts of how we promote things on Facebook,
press release, etc.
h. 2023 MILK Event: Donnie and ECA—let them know we can lend support.
i. Research what types of events bring in the diverse audiences
NEW: Uptown market and voter registration presence (Nikki to take lead)
July or August: International Food Festival or food trucks at ECA
Dia de Los Muertes: Nikki to reach out to Pat Valle
Partnerships 2022 Brainstorm List:
a. Office of Civil Rights for South Snohomish County
b. Working with ESD on Native American History
c. New citizen government education
d. Foundation for outreach and communication.
i. Establish mailing list
ii. Locations for postings
iii. Partners for communications
iv. Editorial calendar
e. Generational disconnect — bridge gap between all age groups.
f. Racial Equity Toolkit - who is doing it? Does it need to be updated? Have a mtg just
to talk about this. And remember, it's ok if there are things that make you uncomfortable
in the toolkit. It spurs conversations.
Ardeth shared that she has been working on this and will continue her efforts on
updating it and improving visibility.
Hems for a different group:
• ADA collaboration with neighboring communities and/or regional agencies
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• Collaborate with Chamber of Commerce to develop BIPOC/LGBTQ+ list of
professionals
• DEI Book Grants for Edmonds School District
• DEI reading and web list for City Council
• What can the Commission do to help single parent issues in Edmonds?
• Exclusion and inclusion issues in Edmonds
• DEI scholarships for students
• DEI collaboration with neighboring communities
• Collaborate with Edmonds PD — Community Engagement Officer
• Review and update the Racial Equity Toolkit
Policy 2022 Brainstorm List:
a. Diversity Equity & Inclusion (Accessibility?)
i. Training for City Staff & elected officials
b. ADA Complaint Portal
i. cannot choose accessibility as an option in the portal. It's a mistake and how they
built it. Just need to add it.
C. Develop a process for City Council recommendations
i. The Council doesn't know.
d. Incident response protocol
i. Megan & Molly will take the notes and develop a flow chart.
e. Recommendation for training of hiring committees on how to employ best
practices to ensure that the city provides equitable, high -quality services to all
residents
i. This is a bigger question.
ii. Do the police know the community?
iii. Does the fire department know the community?
iv. Do the city services know the community?
v. How do you stop the citizens from calling?
vi. How do we get more visibility?
vii. Some community building needs to happen.
viii. Block parties are a solution! National Night Out https://natw.org/
f. How to respond to antisemitic incidences?
i. https:Hholocaustcenterseattle.org/ - move to partnership?
Parking Lot Items:
a. Edmonds' housing inequities
i. HASCO does the Section 8 vouchers.
ii. The area has gotten to expensive
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February 2, 2022
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iii. We don't know the numbers or how it's been trending.
iv. This might be too big.
8. City Council Annual Report: Due to time constraints this item is bumped to the March
agenda.
9. Final takeaways: Each Commissioner shared one word for how they're feeling at the end
of the retreat.
Adjourn: 8:OOPM
Next meeting: Wednesday, March 2, 2022 at 6:OOPM
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